Anthony DiComo's Mets MLBlog

A more radical lineup suggestion

Mets manager Jerry Manuel shook up his lineup Saturday, shifting Jose Reyes back to leadoff and plugging Angel Pagan into the third spot. Maybe that will give the Mets a jolt, but I just don’t see it.

I’m from the school that you want to have your best hitters bat most often. And as well as Pagan is playing right now, he just does not qualify as one of the Mets’ best hitters. Which is why I’d prefer to see him lower down the lineup, with the more productive hitters clumped up top.

Here is the lineup I would try. Note that the Mets’ three leaders in on-base percentage (Wright, Davis and Bay, in that order) are all in the top half of this configuration:

If you want to let Chris Carter start over Francoeur for a couple days, I won’t argue. If you want to keep Castillo in the two hole and push everyone else down a spot, I won’t fight you there, either. And if Francoeur ever starts swinging the bat well, he could shift as high as five in this configuration, making it more ideal.

It’s a little radical, and maybe it wouldn’t work. But I’m not just sure how much Manuel’s minor shakeup is going to change things.

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5 Comments

That lineup might be worth trying.
This is another lineup to maybe try that is also interesting.

Pagan
Reyes
Wright
Bay
Davis
Francouer
Barajas
Castillo

Its good that Perez is gone from the rotation. The Mets should acquire a starter via trade. We could trade Danial Murphy, Nick Evans and others. Roy Oswalt is availible and so is Millwood and Sheets. Although Millwood and Sheets have ending deals and Oswalt would be expensive, they should all give us first round draft picks if we fail to resign them by offering compensation. A good starter is needed and hopefully, Igarashi can return soon and help. Beltran will not be back for at least 2 and 1/2 weeks. Garry Matthews should be off the 25 man roster. Martinez is hurt, but we could easily get a slight upgrade over Matthews, either from the farm or by signing a Jermaine Dye or someone off waivers. Dye would be a big upgrade over Matthews.

We should make an offer for Werth this coming offseason. Meantime, hopefully our injured guys- Igarashi and Beltran get back and we must acquire a good starter, we could acquire Sheets, Milwood or Oswalt, all three of which are availible.

Jose Reyes
Angel Pagan
David Wright
Jason Bay
Ike Davis
Jeff Francoeur
Luis Castillo
Rod Barajas
Ike Davis is not ready to hit 4th. He struggles keeping his front shoulder closed because he strides away instead of towards the pitcher. Since he has a good eye and makes contact you can even consider hitting him second. Also, he seems like he can hit with 2 strikes which is good because it gives Jose a chance to steal. So this could be another lineup:
Jose Reyes
Ike Davis
David Wright
Jason Bay
Angel Pagan
Jeff Francoeur
Luis Castillo
Rod Barajas
Maybe you can switch Barajas and Francoeur because I honestly like having a power bat there. When Francoeur starts hitting then put him back in the 6th hole because Barajas seems like hes very comfortable in the 8th hole and knows how to handle the 8th spot. Even though Pagan isn’t a power hitter he’s still a good fit the 5th spot because he can hit the ball in the gaps with authority and end up with hitting doubles or triples.

I like your lineup waaay more than anything Jerry has put out there but don’t agree with Barajas hitting so high in the order. I know he has been clutch, but his OBP is worthy of the 7 or 8 spot in the order. I would also not say Francouer is a starter anymore unless he turns it around before the Atlanta series is over. We got guys actually hitting the ball at AAA, even if they can’t field as well as Frenchy. I probably am the only one but I actually like and am rooting hard for Frenchy to succeed because I think he can be so good for us but I am ready to give other guys a shot.

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